September 2007 Archives

Back on 9/3 I wrote an entry called Something About Google. Maybe I saw one of the Farrelly brothers' movies playing while channel surfing the night before. I'd just finished reading The Google Story and had created a podcast for my fall class about it.

One of the topics I mentioned in my podcast was the issue of what does Google do with all the information it has collected that could be used in ways that violate privacy. After all, Brin and Page created the "Don't be evil" motto when first starting Google. Could something evil our way come from all the data they've collected on each of us?

On Tuesday, there were numerous stories about Google's response to this issue. Google has released a call for a Global Privacy standard. Peter Fleischer, Google's Global Privacy Counsel, addressed this subject in his blog last Friday, September 14th. Fleischer wrote a long entry "The Need for Global Privacy Standards" and yesterday, he added Eric Schmidt's thoughts "Eric Schmidt on Global Privacy Standards." Schmidt is Google's CEO.

If you Google "Global Privacy" you'll find more articles about the need for it, concerns about Google's use of private information, and responses to Fleischer's comments regarding Global Privacy at a European regional meeting on the "ethical dimensions of the information society," organized by the French Commission of the UNESCO.

We need to watch how this develops because the implications are far-reaching. Many of us love Google, in part because of all the fabulous and innovative apps it has given us; in part because we see it as the anti-MS. We can't let our affair with Google take for granted that Google will do the right thing.

While we're working on getting the authentication piece and webservices working for UA on iTunes U, I have to upload everyone's new tracks. This is not a big deal because I just have to start the upload process and it chugs away on its own. The good part is that I watch them and our two most recent additions are terrific. I highly recommend that you watch them too. Here's a little info on them.

This semester's first Art and Identity lecture featured Franco Mondini-Ruiz talking about his life and his art. Certainly one of the most entertaining and energized speakers the Artists Series has invited to present to UA students and staff. If you follow this link, it should open your iTunes software to the Art and Identity podcast series in our UA on iTunes U "store." Download the track for "Franco Mondini-Ruiz: The Story of My Work." Here's a little bit about Mondini-Ruiz I found on the Web:

"Franco Mondini-Ruiz is a native of San Antonio, Texas, who ives and works in New York. He is the son of an Italian father and a Mexican mother who grew up in San Antonio, Mr. Mondini-Ruiz gave up a law career to become a full-time artist in 1995. His 2005 book, High Pink: Tex-Mex Fairy Tales, "illustrates the meanings behind and within his visual works with 56 often-hilarious stories by the artist that illuminate the cultural divides and bonds that he faced and created during his Tex-Mex childhood. Each story is accompanied by an image of one of Mondini-Ruiz's installations, and this pairing, along with sparkling original text from author Sandra Cisneros, creates an entertaining book with broad cultural, artistic, and linguistic appeal."

My podcast for the Core Web Technologies module of the fall class I'm teaching was around Richard McManus' recent piece called 10 Future Web Trends. McManus' piece appears on Read/Write Web. It seems to me that most of his 10 future Web trends are things that are currently underway and likely will develop further over the next few years. For a more futuristic look, see Stephen Downes "10 Futures" in his blog Half an Hour.

My course is an introduction to information technology and, really, just touches on basics. For example, for Core Web Technologies I will talk about things like XML and AJAX and mashups in my in-class presentation, but the students' assignments involve learning about the W3C and doing an elementary webpage with a bare bones stylesheet.

The podcast that I created for this week reviews McManus' 10 trends. If you're interested in hearing it, follow this link. The file type is dot M4A and plays in either QuickTime or iTunes. For those of you not familiar with Mac software, I made it in GarageBand which means I can add images and URLs to selected images. I like this feature because if I add content that I think is new to students, interested students can pause the podcast and click the link to fire up a browser to learn more.

Last year I cashed in freq flyer miles from United, an airline I've not flown on for about 15 years, for magazine subscriptions. I got a number that I figured I'd just bring in to the LTC and then we decided to cut back on clutter and not put out our magazines. Most have not made it past the re-cycle bin on the way in to the house from the mailbox. A couple I hang on to and try to flip through over the weekends. With yesterday's opening on the NFL, I read through the September Wired between plays and timeouts and re-plays and reviews and the endless stream of commercials. Sometimes I wonder how they manage to get any game time on the screen. Anyway ...

Marmaray Rail Tube Tunnel and Commuter Rail Mass Transit System in Istanbul

A couple very interesting articles to pass along to you. BTW, I just checked and Wired has not yet put the articles up on its website, so I can't provide links for you. Make a note and check these out, if you have not read about them before.

The first article is about a project to build a tunnel through the Bosporus Strait connecting the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. It's an enormous engineering project because the Bosporus is on an active fault line and visited with some regularity by huge earthquakes. What is holding up construction right now is finding a massive new archaeological site, the ancient port of Constantinople. You can check out the project's website, including something you don't see too often on a webpage these days, an absolutely annoying animated GIF, and an article in Der Spiegel's online site "Turkish Tunnel Project Unearths an Ancient Harbor," from May 2006.

Turkey has been trying to join the European Union for 40 years and its membership has been held up due to questions about human rights and democracy. Part of membership in EU also requires "showing sensitivity to other cultures by honoring the heritage the past represents." Finding this archaeological site has led Turkish officials to go slowly on tunneling. The result is setting the project back two years at a loss of $1M a day.

I recently read The Google Story, © 2005, by David Vise and Mark Malseed. It's a good read for a look about how Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google and developed it from an idea to becoming the dominant search engine on the 'Net in only a few years. Along the way Google traveled from a garage in Menlo Park to the Googleplex and sites worldwide. The Google Story is largely a positive look at Page and Brin, extolling them virtuous geniuses who "did it their way."

The course I'm teaching is just starting our Internet module, so reading The Google Story this past month was well-timed for me. I made this week's podcast around it. But wait, it gets better. In Saturday's mail, which I just collected from our mailbox after putting the flag up for Labor Day, included the new The Economist. The Economist has a cover story on Google and if you read quickly over the parts that the editor's felt obliged to include, are the important issues facing not just Google but us Googlers as well.

"Who's afraid of Google?" "Inside the Googleplex."

UA on iTunes U has been up for two weeks now – here’s an update on where we’re at.

We have over 130 episodes within 15 podcast series. Because we already had developed excellent podcasts over the previous 1-2 years, we could hit the ground running (iTunes U's virtual ground). For example, the College of Science’s Global Climate Change and Evolution lecture series, the Faculty Fellows Speakers Series, and Art & Identity. I think we will find a lot of interest from beyond the UA once we get on the iTunes U list.

BTW, being on iTunes U is an excellent example way that the UA fulfills its mission to serve the community. If you talk with people on campus who are considering podcasting, be sure to mention this. It's great visibility and I'm sure our alumni will be happy to see us in the iTunes U Store.

This week the College of Engineering provided 18 videos for a podcast series featuring the College’s programs, students and faculty. I recommend this podcast series to everyone who has contact with departments, programs and colleges at the UA. It’s a terrific marketing tool.

We also began a podcast series for the Phoenix Mars Scout Mission with 6 episodes. Phoenix staff members have a plan to add more podcasts up to day of Scout's landing on Mars. Then they expect to do one a day (I think for at least the first week).